From Publishers Weekly
Two generations of ordinary Portuguese villagers share a town with Bosch-like grotesques in this grim, repetitive debut fantasia from Peixoto. In a poor, unnamed town, an unrelenting sun beats down on José, a shepherd, as he's told by the devil that his wife is having an affair with a giant. Meanwhile, one of a pair of twins (joined at the pinky) falls in love with a widowed cook; at the age of 70, she has a child. Years later, José's son falls in love with the wife of his cousin Salomão, and, again it is the devil who smilingly bears the news to the cuckolded man. Several of the townspeople find refuge from stasis and malaise in suicide. Through shifting points of view (the female characters are not named), repeated phrases and the allegorical setting, Peixoto aims to manifest a subtle connection between the townspeople, a kind of superconsciousness. Throughout, plot takes a back seat to the bleak, stultifying atmosphere. The result is a nihilistic look at rural life in particular and human affairs in general. (Aug.)
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Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Review
“Splendidly demanding.... The images Peixoto evokes in helping his characters communicate without words are singular and unforgettable.... Nature appears to prevail as the governing force, and Peixoto's brilliance and power as an artist are precisely in his desire to mimic nature's ability to create and destroy simultaneously.”—San Francisco Chronicle"José Luís Peixoto is one of the most surprising revelations in recent Portuguese literature.”—José Saramago“Brilliantly rendered episodic tales of rural loss.... Peixoto's evocation of pathos is tempered by a keen sense of the absurd. His ironic sensibility shines through beautifully in this translation.”—Financial Times“Peixoto offers an appealing addition to the genre of rural magical realism…. [A] poignant debut."—Kirkus Reviews“Peixoto's bold, incantatory prose is consistently beautiful… simple but also incredibly rich and resonant. ….The external narrator's own wise words are picked up and repeated by the characters, as though these portentous lines, these profound thoughts are out there… like great discovered truths. That even these weighty lines are moving and thought-provoking, rather than pretentious, is further testament to the author's considerable skills.”—The Independent (UK)“[The Implacable Order of Things] poses difficult questions and challenges the reader… but the patient reader finds great rewards.”—The Australian“You read and breathe as if you were downing a bottle of life in one gulp.”—Le Figaro “Peixoto comes from the world of poetry and of the theatre. And this can be sensed here. His pages, purified in the lyrical prose that makes them unique, introduce us to a rural space burned by the sun, inhabited by the singing of the cicadas and suspended in a mythical time where each...
